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LOSTCIRCUITS	SHORTCUTS: Top Page Strained Silicon Die (re)Organization Prescott New Features I Prescott New Features II Test Setups Latencies Sysmark 2004 Internet Content Creation Office Productivity 3ds max 5.1 Amorphium Cinebench 2003 D3D Gaming => OpenGL Thermal Issues Overclocking, Final Words Prescott 3.0 Pricing Give Us Some Feedback to Improve our Reviews
Intel Pentium4 "Prescott" Strained to the Silicon
(Review by MS, Feb. 1, 2004)

Once upon a time, P4s used to be rated according to the "Gelsinger Paradigm" a.k.a. heat dissipation. With Northwood, this changed pretty dramatically in that the second generation P4s are actually running very cool -- make that relatively cool, as long as an adequate cooler is used. The specifications call for an advanced heatsink with copper core, such unit was supplied by Intel, however, we resorted again to the Zalman CNPS7000 AlCu, quite possibly the best air cooler available.

Irrespective of the HSF used, just sitting in front of the "open case" setup made it clear very soon that there is quite a difference with respect to thermal dissipation between the Northwood and the "Galatin"-based P4EE on one side and the Prescott on the other side. To demonstrate these differences in a more quantitative manner, we logged the core temperature of the P4 3.2 Northwood, the P4EE at 3.2 and 3.4 GHz and the Prescott running at 3.2 GHz during a run of 3DMark2001SE at 58 degree Fahrenheit ambient room temperature.

Temperature logs (2 second intervals) of the four different CPUs: pink and blue: P4EE at 3.2 and 3.4 GHz respectively; yellow: Northwood; red: Prescott at 1.4V; orange: Prescott at 1.5V. (both runs at 3.2 GHz). Note that the scale is truncated at 60 degrees Fahrenheit (as the approximate room temperature baseline). The distance from the bottom of the graph shows the temperature delta over RT. There is always a possibility that the thermal diode of the core of the Prescott was miscalibrated, however, measurements on the heatsink itself showed approximately the same delta as that we are showing for the core temperature during one run of 3DMark2001SE. Keep also in mind that with a less sophisticated cooler in a closed case or else at higher room temperature, the core temperatures will increase depending on the environment.

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